On Beating Burnout
There have been a lot of things taking up our brain space recently. War, inequality, injustice, the decline of our economic system, climate change, and of course the ever-present stress of COVID-19, once all-encompassing and the loudest of all our worries, now just a dull roar underneath everything else. And that’s not even including all the stresses like family drama, personal trauma, financial worries, and all those other things that affect our lives on an individual level. There’s just a lot going on, and we only have so much energy to deal with it all. Add in daily tasks like eating, bathing, and household chores and we have hardly anything left for our passions or our goals.
Enter: burnout. The World Health Organization describes burnout as a syndrome resulting from ongoing stress in the workplace that hasn’t been managed properly (https://www.who.int/news/item/28-05-2019-burn-out-an-occupational-phenomenon-international-classification-of-diseases). While I may not personally agree that it can only be attributed to the workplace (especially in these times), I do agree with the main structure of their definition. In short, burnout occurs when you’ve had too much on your plate for too long with little to no relief. And it’s not something an occasional mental health day can mend; not with all the other “background noise” in the world right now.
A Google search for “how to beat burnout” will result in a barrage of detailed how-to lists for self care. Go outside more often. Stay hydrated. Try a new hobby. Visit loved ones, but also disconnect and get in your alone time. It goes on and on. I know that for me personally, following these lists and checking off the boxes one by one has not been particularly helpful. Generalizing self care is just not the answer. But figuring out exactly what your perfect self care routine looks like can contribute just as much to your burnout as anything else. It’s just another thing to do.
So, then, what do we do? How can we beat burnout without contributing right back to it? Here is the answer: we need support. We need a second person to help ease that mental load of creating that perfect self care routine. To ask the right questions about our burnout so we don’t have to figure out those questions ourselves, which would just take even more emotional energy. But it can be so hard to ask for that support when we know that everyone else is dealing with this burnout too.
This is where life coaching can become such an important and useful tool. Life coaching can provide that perfect personal touch to the development of your individually tailored self care routine. While asking for support from friends and family is important, life coaching is the only support that can truly put you at the center for the entire process. And this can help avoid the pitfalls of generic self care lists that may or may not work for you.
Burnout is serious business. Without relief, it can cause mental and even physical symptoms that can greatly decrease your quality of life. It is very much real and the feelings you experience during burnout are completely valid. But there is relief within reach. With a well-put-together self care routine centered on your own unique challenges and needs, beating burnout is indeed possible, even with so much in the world to take up space in our brains these days.